2013 Dirty Dutch Model Beach Volleyball Tournament: Player Profile

MF:Crossfit is pretty huge right now. How did you get involved in that game?

NF: I used to own some nightclubs in South Beach and one of my business partners and friend of mine, Gaby Balzola, took me to my other business partner, Michael Alfaro's CrossFit box. Mike opened up one of the first CrossFits in Florida called IMT CrossFit. He took me by and said, ‘Bro, you got to try this workout it’s pretty cool.’ I went, I got the crap beaten out of me and I fell in love with it ever since. I really got the results, I changed the way I was eating and it just became a huge part of my life. I finally got to a point where I just wasn’t loving the nightclubs anymore and I ended up selling out of them. That's when Mike was like, 'hey bro, let’s open a CrossFit together on South Beach.' And I was like, 'you know what? Let’s do it!' Now we have some of the biggest ones in the world and a partnership with Reebok that’s phenomenal.

NF: Yeah, so I played it the last two years for Next Models and even participated in the Triple A National Championships. So, I’m pretty good and I love to play the sport. It’s one of the best sports in the world. Playing for Next Models, we did pretty well. I think each year we finished 4th, I think. The company that throws the event is owned and operated by Olivia Ormos who is a very, very good friend. She’s the one really in control of filling the event and I’ve always told her that I’d love to get involved. This was actually the first year we could actually do it and I was like let’s sponsor it from Reebok Crossfit, let’s do it the right way and have some fun. And it happened this year so I’m really excited about it.

MF:What would you say you’re looking forward to the most at the event?

NF: There are a couple of things. Probably the first is that I get some sun. I’m in New York City so much now that I look like Casper the Ghost. So I’m excited to be on the beach running around and playing a sport which I love. I’m also excited to get Reebok Crossfit the brand out there. I think that more people need to see it. I think that more women need to see it and realize that CrossFit works for everybody and even if you’re a model or a waitress or a dancer, you still can do the workout to get the results that you’re looking for. So I’m excited to get it out to that market. There’s also going to be a lot of very beautiful people running around in not a lot of clothing, so it definitey can’t be that bad.

MF:As far as the tournament, is it extremely competitive?

NF: The good teams are extremely competitive. There are like 4 or 5 teams that are pretty good and it gets pretty tight. You’ll get a firsthand view, but people want to win, and it’s a very good prize. You get a free trip to the Bahamas and a free membership to Reebok Crossfit Miami Beach, which are both worth a ton of money. So these teams really go hard.

NF: I’m a CrossFit competitor and I’m getting ready to actually compete in the CrossFit Open to get ready to go to The Reebok CrossFit Games. When you train CrossFit at a high level, 6 days a week, you’re going to be fit to do anything. So, just doing CrossFit. But I would say that the movements that I went over would be the first things you want to do. Those box jumps and different things like that are really going to help you move quickly and jump out of the sand, which isn't easy. If you stick to those movements and do those things, you’ll be good to go.